What is this?
After getting burnt out on my RtG game this past December and seeing the announcement of TEW 2020, I started to think about what my last run with TEW 2016 would be as well as what I wanted to do when TEW 2020 comes out. While had no clue what I wanted to do with TEW 2016, one idea that I had for TEW 2020 was to a tour of the new C-Verse.

To be totally honest, I haven't really played with the C-Verse this version. Shocking I know. I've stuck mostly to the ThunderVerse and the Derek's C-Verse '97 mod in TEW 2016. With around seven in-game years passing from the last time I really got into the C-Verse, it would do me a bit of good to get a refresher on the universe, seeing what has happen to all of the promotion and wrestlers.

In addition, I thought it might be a neat way for new players to see one person's way at getting into a fictional mod. I saw a lot of "I'm not really familiar with the T-Verse" types of posts during my past diary, and while the C-Verse is a bit more known and supported, I would have to guess that the new version of the game will bring a lot of new players that don't know the Jim Force from Giant Redwood. Those are still relevant wrestlers, right?

However, the 6th of January brought us a whole new fictional mod to dive into thanks to the team of jhd1 and MJStark (with the help of TheEnforcer). And you know what's better than touring the world of a mod I haven't seen in seven years and two TEW releases? Doing the same thing, only for something I've never seen before!

No, but seriously what is this?
If you've read my previous diaries, then you know I have a tendency to explain my thought process as I book my games. This diary will do that with the focus changing from me running a promotion to me looking into and figuring out a new this mod.

To be upfront, I really don't have a structure for what is going to be coming up. I have a good number of notes from the small amount of time I've looked at the mod and have a direction where I want to go with this, however I thought that I was going to have a bit more time (11-12 months) to develop the format. In any case, you can expect me to give a good overview about the mod from the top down, adding my own personal thoughts as we travel through this brand new mod. After that I might switch gears and start taking this diary more in a "watcher" direction or could end up taking a test drive with one of the promotions. The possibilities are endless!

Before getting into the mod, I just want to say that if you are completely new to playing anything other than the original CornellVerse database and want to play "From the Depths" or another mod, please read the instructions found in-game. The instructions are found within the Editor (5th button from the left on the menu) in a button labelled "Install a Mod".

If you didn't know before, now you know. And…

Now with that out of the way, it's time to get this party started, starting with getting all the information we can from the From The Depths release thread (exciting I know).

Quote:

Introducing a brand new fictional historical mod set in 1991 from two of the original ThunderVerse team (with some rendering & ideas from a third). Whilst this mod takes some inspiration from the doomed ThunderVerse:VICE project it is largely the brainchild of myself and jhd1 (although it currently uses an unedited version of the ThunderVerse locations) and is an entirely new universe to play with.

From the write-up there are three main takeaways: it's made by a couple of members that made the Thunderverse mod, the mod is set in a fictional 1991, and that it's in Beta. Because of this I'm going to have the following assumptions going in:

Like the Thunderverse before it, this mod is going to be well balanced, interesting, and have a very consistent art direction.

While not being totally the same, I will be able to draw inspiration from the wrestling and pulp culture of the era.

Due to this being a Beta, I will there are bound to be mistakes/errors, missing/unfinished graphics, and/or ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time. If I find any of them, that’s a good thing.

I've downloaded and installed the mod. Time to start it up and pick my user character....

They decided to use the T-Verse render style that I'm so fond of and combined it with the template used in one of the first great mods for TEW, The Death of the Territories by D. Boon's Ghost (which is still an active mod for Wrestling Spirit 3). Excuse me for a minute.

Ok, I'm back and have selected the only user character at the moment, The Grand Master, this mod's version of The Grand Avatar. I'm not sure why he has 74 resilience or 8 respect, but it really doesn't matter anyway. It’s not this save is going to be used for anything other than looking around. In any case, by the time this mod becomes final there will be a handful of options for you to choose from. Maybe even a dimension hoping manager looking to get hired.

After selecting my avatar, I'm greeted with the picture of some guy name Mario King (see above) and am told there are 1,666 workers and 34 companies. Well I know I'm not going to be going over all of the 1,000+ workers in the mod, but I can cover the 34 companies. With that said, I am open to covering them in any order. If any of you have a preference, one way or another, just let me know. For easy reference, here's a breakdown of them by size.

The Process
Before starting to go into the promotions, I should probably tell you the process I went through. Because the amount of new things can be extremely overwhelming, I try to focus on what's important. For me that comes down to two main questions:

How popular is the promotion?

What product do they offer?

From a mechanic perspective, the answers to these question will give you all the information that you will need. You will know what kind of wrestlers to use and hire, what type of matches and angles will be most useful, and if you have to potentially worry about national or regional battles. However, mechanics are only part of the story. To get the rest, I like to check the following information for added context:

Bio

Ownership Structure (Owner, Booker, Figurehead, etc.)

Titles

Relationships / Alliances

Schedule

Now that we know my thought process, let's take Pteroid's advice and look at the mod's largest promotion, the International Wrestling Federation.

Initial Thoughts: My first thought about the International Wrestling Federation is that their name is exactly what they say on the tin. The Minnesota based promotion is the only international promotion in the world. They have national or near national importance in the United States, Canada, and Mexico with Europe being their next target. Their size, combined with their squeaky clean version of Sports Entertainment, gives me a pretty clear picture that this is most likely going to be our WWF stand-in for the mod.

Bio:

Minneapolis, MN - The biggest wrestling promotion in the world by quite some distance, many fans are surprised to learn that the International Wrestling Federation is a relatively new promotion having debuted just over fourteen years ago in 1977. Founded by ruthless businessman James S. Kennedy, critics claim that the IWF stole, cheated and punched its way to the top and destroyed the territorial system - and the AAWP - in the process. Kennedy disagrees, claiming that the cream will always rise to the top.

Pioneers of the sports entertainment product - namely that of big characters and soap opera storylines with far less emphasis on in-ring performance - Kennedy likes to take credit for its development although it is looking increasingly likely that it was his employees that were the real brains behind the style.

Currently waging a bitter war with the World Wide Grappling Association for total domination, the IWF has some of the biggest stars the sport has ever seen.

Post-Contextual Thoughts: My initial thoughts about this being similar to 80s/early 90s WWF was confirmed after reading the bio. Just like the WWF steamrolled the territories in the real world, IWF toppled a wrestling alliance called the AAWP under the stewardship of James S. Kennedy, a man who is pretty similar to Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Or rather I should say that he's similar to the character Mr. McMahon. Much like the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Kennedy is ruthlessness to a fault, resulting in him being a locker room cancer.

Balancing out the ruthless James S. Kennedy is his head booker, Bear Watson. With his render, Bear Watson screams to me as being this mod's version of Gorilla Monsoon. And while there are some big differences, including Bear's background as a football player and being a former IWF World champ, the comparison is a good one. The good news is that he's a locker room leader. The bad news is if you wanted to use him as your user character, you'll lose that bonus.

Finally, our figurehead and World champion is Rage. He's a mediocre brawler with a massive amount of muscles and charisma. He's also an extremely negative personality and rocks face paint. I have ABSOLUTELY no idea who Rage could possibly be based on.

The bio mentions they are now in a heated war with a company called WWGA. When looking at the relationships it seems that they are only considered hostile with the World Wide Grappling Association, making it more of a cold war. That said, it's very likely that this turns into an all-out war soon thanks to old James' lovely personality. There also is a hostile relationship with Maple Leaf Wrestling Association. The bio doesn't list a reason for this, but considering IWF's global ambitions, I can guess why.

There is nothing really out of the ordinary with the IWF's schedule, which I consider a good thing. The A-Show being on a Tuesday means that you are stuck using the initial roster week one, but that's not really since there isn't going to be a company that is going to try and raid your talent (that's your job!).

I'm also a fan of their title structure. You have the standard main event singles and midcard tag team belts that you expect, however they also have two midcard singles titles and an annual tournament that is held in January. Neither midcard title (United States and European) look to have any restrictions, which gives someone a bit of freedom to make those divisions their own. The only issue I have is that the tournament is held is eight months from the start of the mod. I want it to be earlier, so I can book it!

Summary: The comparison to the WWF was definitely on point. While I hope that there are bigger departures with other promotions, having easy comparisons like this one are extremely important for fictional mods as it helps ground it in some kind of reality. It can be tough to come up with storylines and characters for everyone, especially when starting out, so it's nice to be able to look at someone like Rage and know you can easily fall back on Ultimate Warrior and his WWF run for inspiration.

Note: The formatting is still a work in progress. If you have any suggestions, let me know. I'm all ears.

Initial Thoughts: This is promotion is a bit spicier than I first would have thought. With IWF being the WWF/Sports Entertainment promotion, I expected WWGA to be a more wrestling forward promotion, and they are. However, I wasn't expecting the addition of lucha to the product. That said, the makes sense. WWGA's home region is the Mid South, which historically has had a lot of lucha influence due to being on the border with Mexico.

Bio:

Dallas, TX - Even in his wildest dreams, Doug McCann can't have imagined that his promotion would become the second biggest wrestling organisation in the world. Founded in 1961 as Shining Star Grappling, the company offered Texas-style wrestling like no other. Thanks to McCann's ability to build stars, and his connections with promotions across the country, Shining Star Grappling soon edged out the competition to become the top promotion in the state. A member of the CPWO, the SSG left before the AAWP purchase in 1977.

By the mid-1980s SSG had a choice - go national or risk going out of business. While Doug was keen to remain a regional territory in respect of the "old ways", he knew that he could never keep up. Passing control of the promotion to his son Vic, Doug retired in 1985.

Post-Contextual Thoughts: You know how before I said that IWF was more of a stand-in for WWF? Well, while they definitely match up from a mechanical standpoint, WWGA's history takes a lot from the McMahon family's rise as well. The promotion started out as a regional promotion called Shining Star Grappling as a member of an organization called the CPWO. Due to the leadership of Doug McCann, the promotion became a regional powerhouse and left the organization (like the WWWF left the NWA), before the CPWO got bought out by the AAWP (the organization that IWF steamrolled). The son and current owner, Vic McCann took the company national. The last part of the bio mentions money troubles, throwing in a bit of the Crockett's history into mix.

Vic McCann, while having a name similar to Vince seems to have a background more closing to Shane. His father Doug groomed Vic to be his successor and Vic's bio mentions that he's been helping out the ring and backstage crew from the age of 12. He's a negative influence in the locker room due to being anti-social and pessimistic, but at least he's not a cartoonish villain like James S. Kennedy.

Vic's right hand man is Walt Mulhoney. There is no perfect comp for Walt like there was for his IWF counterpart, Bear Watson. His bio mentions that he was a territorial star back in his day and was/is a fantastic booker. This is a pretty common archetype with wrestlers like Pat Patterson, Bill Watts, and Dusty Rhodes that could be used as inspiration if you were to take a spin with this promotion. I'd also recommend using him as a user character. Not only is there really no reason for Vic to change the book, mechanincally it's a smart choice since Walt's personality is neutral and you won't lose a positive influence in the locker room by choosing him.

WWGA's figurehead, Austin Psych, on the other hand as a perfect comp in Superstar Billy Graham, thanks in large part to his render and skill set (especially his tie dye alt). What's different about him is his backstory. You see, Austin had a brother who went by the name Hercules Rock. And while Austin is a star, Hercules Rock was going to be THE star for the AAWP. I say was because in 1984 Rock died in a car crash days before he was going to win the AAWP World title. Austin was booked in his place and the rest is history. One more interesting note about Psych is that he became actor in 1987 and was brought back into wrestling by WWGA in 1990. Unsurprising, Austin Pysch is the current World Heavyweight champion. He's also a very negative influence. Joy…

Speaking of titles, I'm a fan of what WWGA has going on. In addition to the normal, main event singles, midcard singles, and midcard tag titles, they have two low level titles. The first is a Lucha Libre title, which is limited to middleweight and presumably is focused on high flyers. The other title is a six-tag tag title. While both of these make perfect sense for a company based on the US/Mexico border, another influence one can draw on is current NJPW, which also has a junior and heavyweight division. Also, while I didn't plan on digging into any other characters, I had to make an exception for the current WWGA International champion, Terry Viper. Not-Jake Roberts is awesome! While not having the best Star Quality (B-) and isn't going to be having any one hour broadways (C Stamina), he's a fantastic brawler and in-ring technician and can carry anyone to a good match. He'll also be able to talk people into the building with his A microphone and A* charisma. He's also 32 years old, so you'll have him for a long while.

The schedule is similar to the IWF in that there are two shows a week (one A level and a one B level) with monthly PPVs. Their relationships are also similar because WWGA are hostile with another promotion that wasn't mentioned in their bio, Jefferson Country Wrestling Association. WWGA also has a working agreement with one of the bigger Mexican companies, World League of Wrestling, which is cool.

Summary: I'm definitely happy to see IWF rival have a bit more flavor to them. The promotion is far enough away from reality that you could take inspiration from an early WCW or late WCCW or could complete do your own thing. After I get threw reviewing the rest of the promotions, I could definitely see myself taking WWGA for a test run.